Time of Reflection & Memories
by JagaGirl
Summary: Kino no Tabi Kino's Journey A small story about Kino remembering people from her dark past that are important to her.


**Kino no Tabi**

**Unforgeable Memories – Short-Fiction 4**

**Kino X Shizu fanfic**

This fanfic is a sequel to a previous one I wrote! The anime Kino no Tabi. Kino no Tabi was NOT created by me! I only wrote this story of the characters as a fan of the show. I have nothing to do with creating this anime!

**WARNING! MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!**

It was the first day of autumn as the leaves fell from the trees tangling into the cold air that lead them to unknown places. Small animals were squirming around the forest looking for food before they would hibernate for the winter that was coming. Kino and her friends traveled down the small unknown path without a map at hand, as the night before there had been very strong winds and they had lost it while trying to keep their tent down as well as a few other things that the wind took as well.

Shizu noticed Kino brushing her hands on her coat a few times trying to keep warm. She wore her long yellow traveler's coat she called it. It was beginning to have holes and rips all over it, showing it had been loved very much. He continued with his dune buggy beside her not saying a word.

A while later, they stopped and decided to set up camp again. They didn't believe they were anywhere near a country at the present time, so they would have to sleep outside another night. Shizu started to put up the tent as Kino went to gather some wood to make a toasty fire to sit by. After they set up their camp site, Kino sat by the fire waving her arms in front of the fire trying to get some warm into her body as Shizu continued to watch her.

"Kino?" He asked. "Maybe went we get to the next country we should get you a new coat." Kino looked at him strangely then shook her head. "I want this coat." She explained. Shizu decided to let her be with it. He knew that arguing about it would get nowhere anyway. He began to wonder what the story behind her coat was, since a normal person would be glad about getting a new coat. Kino seemed to read his mind as she continued to stare at him. "This coat belonged to someone important to me that helped me become who I am today." She explained in more detail.

As Shizu looked up at the stars, the first person that came to his mind was Shishou. "From Shishou?" he asked. Kino shook her head in a no form. "No, it's from someone I knew before Shishou, someone that saved my life, sacrificing his own." Shizu began to feel a little jealous that Kino had another important guy in her life when he remembered what he heard from her home country. She had met a traveler by the name Kino that made her doubt the operation and because of him she got a chance to escape her country alive. He had given his life for hers so that she could live on happily.

Shizu looked back down at Kino and pulled her closer to him. Kino became quiet and a few tears feel down her cheeks and Shizu wiped them from her face. She still missed the traveler she had met from her childhood. He had thought her much about the traveling, life, how to many your own choices to be happy.

"Kino?" he wanted to get her full attention. "I have a gift for you. I was waiting for a good time to give it to you and right now seems like a good time." He got up and rampaged through his bags. Kino looked at him confused and wondered what he wanted to give her. He had given her already so much. He came back with a book wrapped in a cloth that Kino recognized far too well. "Mom.." Kino began to feel uneasy at cloth. She knew it had been her mother's favorite cloth and she would get mad at Kino went she would use it like any other one. "What is this?" She asked Shizu. Shizu smiled at her. "It's a present from your mother. She asked me if I ever see you again to give you this. She thought you'd like to have it. It seems your mother still misses you. She thinks of you every day, but she doesn't let it show because of your father." Shizu explained to her.

Kino was unable to believe her mother still though about her after the way she acted when Kino left on Hermes from the country. "A mother can never truly hate their child." Shizu explained to her as she looked up at him then back down to the book. She moved the cloth revealing the title. 'A Traveler's Journal' it said. Kino opened it up and noticed it was full of entries as she scanned through the pages. All of a sudden she noticed a name at the bottom of an entry. 'Kino' it said. It had been Kino's traveling journal that her mother had keep for all these years. She moved through the pages scanning the text till she reached the last page. On the last page there was an entry by her mother that she read out loud.

'XXXXXX,

I'm not sure if this note will ever reach you, but it makes me more comfortable to have written it down. I will have to make this fast, because if your father saw it he would go mad. I want to apologize for what happened and I hope you are happy to where you are now. You will always be my precious little girl no matter what happens, how much you have changed, or wherever you go. You must be wondering where this journal came from. When we were preparing the traveler's body for burial, I was organizing his things to bury with him when I came across his journal. I read the last few entries on how he had met you and how he thought you must have felt under the pressure you were on. He spoke about how you loved to sing and about how interested you were with the stories he told you. I was amazed at how little I actually knew about my own daughter and how a stranger could come for three days and learn so much that I couldn't do in years. I wanted you to have this for a gift, but like you know, leaving the country is forbidden. So, I gave this book to a travel that seemed very interested in you, and asked him if he would ever meet you to give it to you. I hope you stay well, my little flower.

Mother'

As Kino read through the entry, she began to cry. She had always been closer to her mother then to her father. Shizu pulled her closer to him trying to comfort her from the pain she was feeling. That night, Kino read through each of the entries with eyes as curious as a new born child's. She flipped from page to page sulking in the information from the travels the Kino she once knew till her eyes began to get sleepy and began to close. Soon after she drifted off to sleep over the book holding to herself tightly as if she was afraid that it would blow away any second. When Shizu thought she was fully asleep he picked her up and took her into the tent laying her in the bed roll covering her up from the cold.

"Thank you, Shizu." she whispered silently, but he still heard and smiled down to her. "Your welcome." He said as he got into his bedroll and sleep beside her holding her protectively.

**Well I think, I'll end this short-fiction here. I'll write another one went I feel like it. :P Probably will be soon. LOL I just wanted to write a little about the original Kino that I admired quite a bit. Hope you all enjoyed it!**


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